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02 December 2012

December Ancestors

For the sake of brief entries, I am
not footnoting the facts in this ongoing memorial. Sources have been
noted either in other blog posts or in my family history books.

8
December 1871 Jessie Isabella McFadyen
was born in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the daughter of John
McFadyen and Isabella Campbell; she was their second child and first
daughter. Her parents were Cape Breton natives who sailed to "the
Boston states" as an interim step toward their final
destination: the Canadian prairies. Her father worked in Provincetown
for a few years to finance the remainder of the trip. And indeed
young Jessie Isabella (known as Belle) and her brother Hector would
find themselves in Oakbank, Manitoba, three years later. Belle later
married William Charles Dougall on her father's farm in 1894. She was
my grandmother.

24
December 1814 On Christmas Eve, Donald McFadyen, a native of
Coll, Scotland, was discharged from the 2nd Battalion, 91st
Argyllshire Regiment of Foot, in southern England. Donald would have
had a long journey to his island home in the Inner Hebrides where he
spent another thirteen years, eking out a scant living for his family
from the land. It is still not clear to me whether he chose to leave
for Nova Scotia or was forced to go in 1828. His battalion was
disbanded the following year as the Peninsular War ended. Not much is
known about the old second battalion, even by current regimental
historians. The Argyllshire and Sutherland Highlanders Museum is
situated in Stirling Castle.

26
December 1914 Catherine Fraser Dougall died on this date in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, three days shy of her 81st birthday. She was the
mother-in-law of Belle, above. Catherine became the wife of
Scottish-born Peter Dougall, outliving her husband only by six
months. Both are buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Winnipeg. Catherine was
my great-grandmother.

Catherine Fraser Dougall, 1833-1914

29
December 1833 Catherine Fraser (as above) was born in St Andrews,
Quebec, the daughter of John Fraser from Killin, Perthshire,
Scotland, and his wife Nancy Fraser of Inverness-shire, Scotland,
lineage. Catherine's marriage to Peter Dougall incurred residential
moves to Vankleek Hill and Renfrew, Ontario, then finally Winnipeg.
She became the mother of nine children who, as adults, scattered
between Renfrew and Winnipeg to California, Minnesota, and New York.